By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., UFTI Research & Communications Coordinator
The UF American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter added another win to their already solid list of achievements, securing 1st Place at Audrey’s Traffic Control competition at the 2025 Southeast ASCE Student Symposium held March 6-8, 2025, at the University of Georgia.
Kyle Groome, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering with a minor in urban and regional planning, was one of the team members participating in Audrey’s competition. He says he became interested in joining because transportation is one of those unspoken sectors everyone uses but doesn’t often think about.
“That draws me in since I can help my community meaningfully without being too much in the public eye,” he said. “I was not expecting to win the competition, so when they announced that we did, my initial response was shock, but that was quickly followed up by excitement since it was the first win announced for UF during the conference banquet, so all of the UF students were celebrating with us and chanting, ‘It’s great to be a Florida gator!’”
Audrey’s competition is held in honor of Audrey Peralta Stewart, a University of Alabama graduate who worked as a transportation engineer at Arcadis in Jacksonville, Florida. Audrey passed away at the age of 23 in February 2023. This competition is a tribute to her passion for transportation engineering. The UF team’s participation and victory was a chance to honor her memory.
This year, the team included Groome, Michael England, Thomas Raffenberg and Lance Chen. Raffenberg, a third-year civil engineering student, recalls an instance during the competition when he was so focused on the task at hand that he did not realize that the UF team was ahead of all the others.
“One moment that stood out to me during the competition was when we finished our setup before the other teams,” said Raffenberg. “I hadn’t looked around to check until we had finished, but it was a great feeling knowing that we were in the lead on time.”
Audrey’s competition is not a cakewalk. The competing teams are given a random scenario and must draft a temporary traffic control plan based on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) Standards. Working against the clock, the team needs to consider the types of roadways and placement of traffic signs that ensure safety for drivers and road workers. During this competition, a lot of details are packed into these types of plans in a short amount of time. Nonetheless, this fast-paced competition did not deter the UF teams’ efforts, and they delivered a traffic control plan that the judges determined to be safe and efficient.
Chen, a first-year student majoring in civil engineering, is still exploring the various areas within civil engineering but said Audrey’s Traffic Control competition helped him understand what transportation engineering is all about.
“It is important to compete in Audrey’s Traffic Control to explore and experience different aspects of Civil Engineering, which in this case is the transportation side of civil engineering,” Chen said. “Becoming a transportation engineer is a possibility that I can look into and work on down the line.”
Audrey’s Traffic Control competition wasn’t UF’s only win at the ASCE student symposium. They also excelled in other categories, winning the Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe competitions, teams advised by Taylor Rawlinson, Ph.D., and advancing to the nationals. Other categories in which the UF team secured 1st Place also included the Professional Paper, the Construction Institute and the 3D Printed Bridge, while finishing in third place in the Geowall competition.
These achievements mark UF as the first ASCE student chapter to “three-peat” as the overall champions, dominating the competitions at the symposium. The ASCE student chapter advisor, Mark Newman, Ph.D., could not be prouder.
“I have been the UF ASCE Faculty advisor for thirteen years, and this was the best prepared our teams have ever been for the student competitions,” he said. “Our conference chairs, Kieran McInerney and Adina Birnholz did a phenomenal job overseeing all of the teams and handling all of the logistics, which allowed our teams to focus on winning their competitions.
“It was great to see the faces of our Traffic Control team when they were announced as winners because they were shocked and elated, and they started the awards off well for our chapter. I am truly proud of all of our students as they did an excellent job representing their Chapter and the University of Florida.”
As UF’s ASCE student chapter rides the celebratory wave of victory, one thing is for sure: They are not just making history; these students are making it fun, and they are bright. These students are going places.
Employers should be on the lookout as these students are the type of talent that will drive the future of civil engineering. Congratulations to them all!